Friday, December 19, 2008

Who's Your Friend?

Almost everyday, the list of people wanting, or declaring themselves to be my friend keeps growing . Some are genuine and sincere, while others seem to me like Amazon Headhunters. They are the ones that seem to collect friends like trophies to hang on their walls. I understand this kind of thing can be good politics, but I don't expect any of them will desire to shake my hand anytime soon. Still, I have yet to reject an offer of friendship. Though I question my ability to be a true friend to so many remarkable souls, and if one day, I were to fall in love, finding myself engulfed in torrid passion; would I be able to serve all my mystery friends, or lose everything to blind lust? Well the truth is, electronic friends are as expendable as simply turning off your computer. For most of us, real people and real events take up most of social life. Being a friend to the Internet, is a bit like being a ghost, we can make a lot of noise, but for the most part, we lack the ability to become physical beyond the picture screen of a monitor.
Perhaps I'm not keeping up with the times, and value this kind of friendship more than I should, I seem to be blessed with only highest caliber of people as my friends. I feel guilty whenever I fail to give them the proper attention they deserve, or lose track of them completely. I'm not sure how this will all work out, but there is no place for me to run, I will always be part of this cyber world. With each and every one of you, as my brothers, and sisters.
As a friend, you may have to hit me over the head a time or two, but I will do my best to keep up, if I fall behind,( and you know I will), remember to come and get me. Be you an old or new, a friend is a friend; you are never alone, when you have my head, and can always talk to me.
I wish you all happy holidays!

All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

5 comments:

graceonline said...

I appreciate your sentiments. When another blogger pointed me to Blog Catalog, I almost jumped off without joining because of its use of the word "friend." I feel dishonest using that word in this context. I prefer Twitter's option to "follow" another Tweeter.

Walt said...

Sometimes people stumble on the truth, yet only the foolish get up immediately and keep walking indifferently.”
Thank you Grace, I would be honored to have you as a friend.
I must admit, there is no bigger attention hog than myself. I still love to bask in the warm applause of of approval. But there is really little or nothing to me. I only write as the spirit moves me, nothing more. Only with love and commitment can one forge a lasting friendship, or a marriage.

EARTH MOTHER said...

Amazon Headhunters is a good analogy, Walter. I don't understand the attraction of collecting cyber friends like trophies, hence, I don't participate in many social media sites. I also pick and choose my electronic friends. The internet has certainly opened up a whole new realm for how we relate to one another.

Walt said...

Mommy, I have lost most of my old friends to entities like Facebook. It is very much like sensory overload, they are still there, but we never talk to each other as we once did. There are just too many new people in the mix. Over time words change, just as "Gay" is no longer gay; the word "Friend" is suffering the same fate.

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a great sharing. I could have written this as you have expressed what I feel and think so many days. I can hardly keep up. And I have "met" so many good sincere people, heartfelt people. I really liked the part of telling people reach out and contact you in the event that you forget someone or get involved in your "real" life. I have often thought of doing the same. With my current workload there is no way I can keep track of it all and then getting 100 to 2oo emails a day...it's not even possible to stay on top of it all. I am trying to just go with the flow and am easy with people coming and going as they see fit. Luckily I am not someone to ever keep score.

Anyway I was very glad to this written out like this. You have a wonderful way of being direct, of cutting right to the chase, which I find refreshing!!

Thank you for expressing something that has been on my mind as well.